A shadow unspooled to reveal the figure cocooned inside it. ‘Is that…Shanon?’ Yeon-woo’s eyes widened in surprise at the unfamiliar appearance of the entity he’d summoned.

Shanon had already been larger than most players, but he’d now grown past two meters. His aura was remarkable even though he was just standing there. The black energy around him was similar to Yeon-woo’s shadow, but it had a depth, as though it would suck in everything in the vicinity.

As he continued looking at Shanon, Yeon-woo realized what had changed: it was the smell of death. Shanon was exuding a ferocious, predatorial scent that could pull in all living beings. It was also the smell of fight, a power that suppressed the weak and displayed one’s fighting spirit to the strong.

‘Is it my holiness?’ It seemed Shanon had been influenced by Yeon-woo’s position and gone through metamorphosis. His classification had also changed.

[Death Lord]

[Position: Familiar]

[Description: As a Lord who rules over death, he will lead to death all those who reject his master. He has the ability to control hell. As your first familiar, faithful knight, and mighty general, he will work to spread your will in this land.]

[Special Notes: His strength is currently transforming into something new. You will need to wait until it is complete.]

‘A Death Lord.’ Previously, Shanon had been a Death Noble, and now he’d risen one level. His powers were definitely befitting a Lord. The information in the Special Notes section stood out to Yeon-woo. Ruk, the strength he’d stolen from the Gluttony Emperor, was evolving to a new stage. He wondered what Shanon would be like once it was finished. ‘He’s already on the level of the Nine Kings. In some ways, he might be even more powerful than they are…’

Yeon-woo was happy. Strength was always welcome. ‘No, this might be a natural result.’

Shanon and Hanryeong had intensively studied Heaven Bracket to improve their martial arts, unlike Yeon-woo, who had to focus on martial arts, magic, alchemy, and the Black King’s powers. Even Yeon-woo sometimes learned new things from Shanon’s enlightenment regarding Flame Wheel and Shinmokryeong.

Shanon had also seen the Heavenly Demon and opened his eyes to a new world through the revelations. Since he’d spent nearly 200 years—or 1,000 years in his consciousness—meditating, it would have been odd if he hadn’t made any progress.

『What…is this?』 Valdebich’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at Shanon. Chills ran down his body and his eyes turned dark. He looked like he had seen an old enemy.

Yeon-woo grinned. Shanon was agitating Sword Yaksha, who fought with the otherworld gods? Shanon had come a long way; in fact, he’d probably grown the most apart from Yeon-woo. Although he was sometimes annoying when he joked around, he was the closest companion Yeon-woo had.

Yeon-woo replied with a smile. “My familiar.”

『What? This creature…? 』 Valdebich muttered in disbelief, turning to Yeon-woo. He shook his head. Yeon-woo trapped otherworld gods in emptiness like it was nothing, so there wasn’t anything unusual that he’d have familiars like this. If Yeon-woo had more, then it wouldn’t be impossible to free them from the Crawling Chaos like he promised.

Just then, blue flames blazed within the darkness under Shanon’s black helm. Flash! It was Inferno Sight, the eyes the dead needed to see the physical world. 「Where…is this?」 His voice was dry and cracked, as though it had come from the depths of hell, and Valdebich felt shivers run down his back again.

Yeon-woo seemed unaffected. “Wake up, Shanon. You’ve slept enough already.” The black energy around Shanon dispersed as he began to rise.

Chhhhh. His movements were creaky, like a machine that hadn’t been used for a long time and was being activated again. However, more black energy began to flow through his joints, making his movements smoother. Clack. Clack! Creak!

He used his Swordbreaker for support as an intense energy storm whirled around him. His shadow spread along the ground.

The rickety half-giant shacks were swept away by the winds and almost collapsed. Valdebich quickly emitted magic power to turn the winds around as Shanon slowly looked at Yeon-woo. 「Nice of you to summon me so fast.」 Shanon’s voice was still dark. He seemed dissatisfied, but Yeon-woo was used to this.

“I had some things to do.”

「Thanks to you, we were dying of boredom since we only live through you.」

Yeon-woo hadn’t been able to tell how much time had passed because he’d been absorbed in the revelations, but that wasn’t the case for his subordinates. Although they shared the same time as he did, they were still separate beings, and it made sense that they would feel tedium. There were limits to how much time they could spend meditating, after all. Shanon was a bit upset that Yeon-woo had forgotten about them.

「I was right on the last step… did you have to wake me up now?」 The evolution of Ruk could be a new achievement for Shanon. Just as Yeon-woo had the holiness of death and fight, Shanon could use Ruk as a new legend as well, and he was disgruntled since Yeon-woo had woken him up when he was on the verge of completion.

“Don’t be upset. It’ll take some more time, but you can finish it any time, right? You’ve waited for a thousand years, so what’s wrong with a few more months?”

「Hmph. But it’s still…」

“If you don’t want it, I’ll give it to someone else.”

「Damn it! Why doesn’t your temper ever change? Sheesh… 」 Shanon grumbled at Yeon-woo, who wasn’t giving him the chance to complain.

Actually, Yeon-woo had planned to let Shanon sleep until he woke up by himself, but the situation made it necessary to wake him.

Valdebich looked at Shanon with a blank expression. He couldn’t get used to the sassiness of the creature who’d just exuded a fierce aura.

「What? You’ve never seen a dead guy before?」 Shanon sensed his gaze and took his anger out on Valdebich.

Valdebich wondered what nonsense he was talking about.

「I guess it is your first time. Then you’ll see a lot more in the future. People die in masses in front of King Temper here.」

Valdebich was still speechless, but he understood what Shanon was saying. Shanon turned back to Yeon-woo with a flippant tilt of his head. 「So why’d you call me?」

“You said you were a training instructor at Red Dragon, right?”

「So?」

Thinking of the half-giants trembling in front of him, Yeon-woo said seriously, “There are some people you need to guide.”

* * *

「Hey, Master.」

‘What?’

「How about you just swallow all these things instead?」

‘No.’

「C’mon, give it some more thought. You can get the Giant Factors you’ve been looking for, train them more easily in Dis Pluto, and life will be easier for me. Killing three birds with one stone, hm?」

‘I’m going to cut off communication with you.’

「Shit! Then what do you want me to do with these…!」

Yeon-woo silenced Shanon’s defiant tone by blocking the Channel. He felt like he could see Shanon stomping and shaking his fists in anger, but it was better to pretend not to know anything. He realized Valdebich was looking at him with concern. “What is it?”

『I’m just wondering if it’s all right to do it like this. As you can see, they become even more timid if they’re pressured to do something. I just have all these worries…』

Yeon-woo and Valebich left the half-giants to Shanon and were on their way out of the village, but Valdebich was still concerned. The half-giants were used to being dogs in kennels. He had been trying to change them for a long time, but they had grown used to their situation. If anyone tried to force them to do something different, they’d just shrink back even further.

They’d just left them behind with Shanon, whom they were seeing for the first time. Even Valdebich could feel Shanon’s intimidating spirit, so it was obvious what the half-giants would feel. In addition, based on the way Shanon talked back to Yeon-woo, it was plain that Shanon wasn’t exactly reliable.

“It’s fine.” However, Yeon-woo just silenced his concern.

『But.』

“It’ll work.”

『Still….』

“It will.”

Valdebich couldn’t continue. Yeon-woo focused on creating a path to travel on as he spoke. “I know what you’re worried about. People can’t change overnight, so it’ll be difficult for them. People all have different characters and grow up in different environments, and it’s dangerous to force them to suddenly change. Under normal circumstances, it’s true that we should take the time to slowly change them.”

Valdebich was quiet.

“But we don’t have the luxury. This place is becoming a dangerous environment for the half-giants to live in, and the situation on the higher floors is changing by the day. To survive there, something needs to be done.” Yeon-woo thought the Tower was experiencing its greatest changes since its birth. The conflict between the heavenly world and Allforone was growing worse, and the otherworld gods were trying to enter the Tower more frequently. There would be a great disturbance not too far in the future.

If the half-giants wanted to survive as giants and not die out, they needed to bear the pain and quickly change. From what Yeon-woo could see, the timid half-giants didn’t require persuasion or motivation; he needed to force them, even if they resented and despised him. He could handle the backlash later. A king sometimes needed to be firm.

Knowing Yeon-woo meant well, Valdebich couldn’t say anything more. All he could hope for was that the half-giants could follow along.

“More importantly…” Yeon-woo changed the subject to lighten the mood. “Is this really the path?”

『Yes. I don’t know if this is the place you’re looking for, but according to the half-giants, this is where our ancestors resided.』

Yeon-woo checked the description of the scenario quest again. His first task to prove himself as the god and king of the giant race was to explore and examine the historic sites. The quest said they contained a secret the giant race had left behind. ‘Did they leave something for their successors?’

That was what Yeon-woo suspected. Unless the giants were fools, they wouldn’t have acted as the Crawling Chaos’ hunting dogs without preparing a counterattack, although they’d gone extinct before they could try it. If so, there would probably be something related to it at the sites.

『This is it.』

Yeon-woo and Valdebich stopped. They could see the ruins below: temples, villages, and empty land. If Valdebich hadn't led the way, Yeon-woo would’ve walked past it without a second thought, believing it to be just another part of the wasteland. Yeon-woo spread his Fire Wings open as he scanned the sites. It was large, almost hundreds of meters wide. “What a mess.”

『It’s inevitable since they’ve been forgotten for thousands of years. Considering that otherworld gods are actively roaming the area, I think it’s a miracle at least this much is left.』 Bitterness filled Valdebich’s voice.

Yeon-woo nodded in agreement while also feeling at a loss. Was he supposed to dig under the entire area like some archaeologist? It would take years because the area was too large. He spread his Extrasensory Perception along the territory, even underground. ‘But there’s nothing out of the ordinary.’

There were old artifacts the giant race had used buried beneath the earth. Perhaps Brahm or Boo might have been excited to see them, but they didn’t mean much to Yeon-woo. He was wondering whether he needed to summon his souls to examine the territory more carefully when he realized that there was an extraordinary number of stone monuments around the borders of the territory. ‘Stone monuments?’

「Master.」 Just then, he could hear a familiar voice in his head. It was Boo. He hadn’t awakened anyone other than Shanon, so why was Boo awake? 「Gather…the…stones.」 Boo continued to speak without explaining.

Although his voice was as jerky as usual, Yeon-woo could feel his excitement. Realizing Boo had sensed something, he quickly circulated his Dragon Heart. “Valdebich.”

『What is it?』

“Step back.”

Before Valdebich could ask why, Yeon-woo spread his magic power around them. Valdebich stepped back in surprise, and a layer of magic power extended around the entire territory. Urrrrng. Influenced by the wave of magic power, dozens of stones resonated as one. Most of them were weatherbeaten and the words written on them were long gone, but they glowed and floated up in the air. Then, they began to fit into each other like puzzles, combining into a single large stone.

When it fell in front of Yeon-woo, he could see strange letters chiseled on its surface that were shockingly familiar.

『This is…?』 Valdebich’s eyes widened at the secret of the territory. He’d never discovered anything during the entire time he was on this stage.

“The Emerald Tablet. It means they’re the revelations.

『What?』 Valdebich turned to Yeon-woo in surprise.

Yeon-woo quickly skimmed through the revelations and exclaimed in astonishment. The stone contained the parts that he hadn’t been able to read in the Changgong Library. “Valdebich, it looks like your ancestors tried to swallow the Crawling Chaos.”